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Saturday, February 26, 2011

This week, let's check in on saxophonist Chris Potter, who's bringing his electric band Underground to St. Louis next week to Wednesday, March 2 through Saturday, March 5 at Jazz at the Bistro.

Potter, who just turned 40 last month, played St. Louis most recently in January 2009 with bassist Dave Holland's quintet at the Sheldon Concert Hall. (You can read StLJN's review of that gig here.) He also led his acoustic group for a week at the Bistro a few years back, but this will be the first St. Louis appearance of the plugged-in Underground, which usually includes keyboardist Craig Taborn (who also cover the bass parts on his Rhodes electric piano), guitarist Adam Rogers, and drummer Nate Smith.

Today's first clip was recorded in July 2009 in Stuttgart, and shows Potter and Underground performing "The Wheel." Down below, there's a version of Bob Dylan's song "It Ain't Me Babe," featuring Potter on bass clarinet, recorded in 2008 at the the Dakota in Minneapolis, followed by another unlabeled excerpt from the Dakota gig below that.

Finally, for a bit of contrast, today's fourth video shows Potter in a much more traditional setting, playing his version of the classic tenor sax showcase "Body and Soul" a couple of years ago on the PBS program Legends of Jazz.